Competitors in the 2011 The North Face Peak to Peak (August 6) will be going all out to topple the record time of 2hours 02.51 clocked in 2010 by Queenstown’s Fergburger team in the prestigious mountain-to-mountain multisport event from the top of The Remarkables to Coronet Peak.

Race Director Geoff Hunt says there are several hardcore teams aiming to break the two hour mark.

“It has always been a target for some of the top athletes and last year’s race which saw Fergburger just pip the experienced defending open champion team Outside Sports by two minutes has intensified the goal to go under two hours.”

The North Face Peak to Peak is being staged for the 18th consecutive year and the August timing this year is due to the later New Zealand school holiday period.

“We don’t expect the change from the traditional July date to have any impact,” says Hunt. “There is a lot of interest already building out there amongst both returning and first time athletes. There are a number of school teams competing which is good to see as we are keen to foster the younger, up and coming multisporters who are the future of the sport.”

The 44km race starts at the top of The Remarkables with a 2km ski/snowboard on The Homeward Bound run finishing at the skifield access road. A 17km mountain bike ride down the high altitude road finishes at Frankton Beach and is followed by a 7km paddle to Queenstown Bay. From the Bay it is a 9km run to the foot of Coronet Peak and a 9km cycle ride up the access road to finish at the base buildings. Continue Reading

With the weekend just a few hours away for us here in the states, we decided to post this short clip of Brook MacDonald taking a leisurely ride in NEw Zealand. Who else has a ride like this planned this weekend?

Thanks to the Outer Edge for the heads up!

By Richard Ussher

It’s definitely been a fun summer of racing with a lot of smaller events and for me I’ve really put an emphasis on trying some new events and just really enjoying the racing. That said Xterra NZ was one of the races that I had decided to target and hence the past six weeks have been filled with some reasonably intense training sessions.

Arriving in Rotorua it was apparent the summer had decided to already leave – at the Blue Lake at least with Frank and his team looking more like they were dressed for a days work up the ski field not for an event where everyone would be running round in Lycra.

The field in the men’s field looked like it was going to be a similar battle to the first time I had raced at Xterra NZ with Scott Thorne likely to be my main competition. There was also Mark “Cabin” Leishman and Australian triathlete Ben Allen.

The course had changed again this year with the inclusion of more single track which I knew was going to mean some hair raising descents trying to stay close enough to Scott and Cabin on the incredible Rotorua MTB tracks.

I think they designed Xterra for me with the leisurely 11am start – perfect. In truth though I did have to get up early anyway as Elina decided to compete in the Mountain Bike race that started at 9am. Once she was out on course there wasn’t much for me to do except relax, which I duly did.

A huge bonus though was summer had returned and conditions were perfect.

Just as I was heading for the start line and a little warm up before the swim I heard over the PA that’d Elina had come through for the win in the women’s MTB race. A good omen hopefully.

On the start line I was surprisingly relaxed ahead of the impending swim, I’ve been slowly getting my head around the swim and it is certainly less daunting setting out for one kilometer instead of 3.8 as in the Ironman races.
Continue Reading

The Queenstown Bike Festival will focus on two major events during Easter with the annual New World Tour de Wakatipu attracting big numbers of elite and recreational riders and the inaugural Corona Dirtmasters Downhill in Ben Lomond forest featuring world class riders in action.

Around 620 people have registered for the Tour de Wakatipu on Saturday (April 23) which takes riders from Arrowtown to Chard Farm winery on the Kawarau River.
The event begins at Millbrook Resort with cyclists riding down the avenue to the western end of the resort to the Wakatipu Trails Trust track, which leads to Speargrass Flat Road and on to Slopehill Road. The competitors then move on to Lower Shotover Road to access a scenic single track alongside the Shotover River before crossing the restored Lower Shotover Bridge.

From the bridge the course follows a gravel road and 4WD track to the Shotover delta, before joining the Kawarau River track and crossing the Kawarau River bridge. A one kilometre highway section accesses the private Kawarau River road on Coneburn Station leading to the finish line at Chard Farm.

Director Geoff Hunt says the private track offers people a once-in-a year chance to ride the exclusive access through Coneburn Station. The scenery is brilliant through here and we are very fortunate that the landowner Steve Laing is prepared to open it up. We are also grateful to landowner Mike Mee for allowing us access through his private property.”

The recreational ride covers 36km while elite and sports riders include an 8km loop of the Lake Hayes track to cover 45km. The event caters for all riders in age group categories including a junior division.

High profile Queenstown rider Mark Williams has won both previous Tour de Wakatipu events and will defend his title again this year.
Continue Reading

What follows is a short trailer for the Vanuatu Adventure Race to take place August 13-15, 2011 in the South Pacific. What a great location for a race and an even better venue for a little R&R post race in paradise.

New Zealand’s number one multisport and adventure racing athlete, Richard Ussher, is changing his focus for 2011 after a closely fought win at the Paymark XTERRA New Zealand Championship today.

The four-time Coast to Coast Champion and world class adventure racer took top honors in the 1km swim, 29km mountain bike and 11km trail run race by more than a minute from last year’s defending champion Scott Thorne from Hamilton.

“It was a really hard day at the office today but I am really pleased with the win” said Ussher.

Ussher will now, for the first time in his career, turn his major focus to XTERRA off-road triathlons, including racing in Europe leading up to the XTERRA World Championships in Maui on October 23rd.

“The XTERRA format is a really good mix of racing for me with the off-road element but still the triathlon structure. I have been to the XTERRA World Champs in Maui twice now, in 2009 my seat post broke and I finished 11th, in 2010 I crashed my bike and finished in 7th place. So I definitely have some unfinished business there – I want to go back and give it a better crack. I have really been working hard on my mountain biking, getting my technical skills up.”

This tactic worked well today with Ussher leading off the bike and Thorne right behind (all pictures here courtesy alphapix/John Cowpland). Ussher’s experience and strength got him through to his second XTERRA win in Rotorua, having also won in 2009.

“I tried to get a bit of a gap on him (Thorne) from the start on the run, then I relaxed and got into my rhythm, halfway through I was able to surge again and then just held on,” said Ussher.
It was a different story in the women’s race with first time triathlete, Karen Hanlen, upsetting the women’s field with a come from behind win. Hanlen, from Whakatane, surprised even herself with the win, especially given her inexperience.
Continue Reading

Chelsey Gribbon and Jason Magness (YogaSlackers) just returned from a trip to New Zealand. Here is time-lapsed video of them running the Kepler Track which amounts to 1.5 marathons (60km).

Expert mountain bikers will debut a challenging world class downhill track in the Ben Lomond forest above Queenstown, and raise the profile of mountain biking in the resort, in a new three day event to be staged at Easter 2011.

The Ben Lomond downhill is the brainchild of Southern Traverse guru Geoff Hunt who considers there is a strong demand for an event at this level in Queenstown.

“The track is still to be defined but there is huge potential in the forest and with the support of Skyline Queenstown who will provide access for the event I believe we have a great formula. The local mountain bike fraternity spends considerable time in this area riding the already formed tracks established by the Queenstown Mountain Bike Club and bikers are upbeat about the opportunity for a real adrenalin rush that the new event offers.”

The technically demanding course which will start at the top of Skyline Queenstown will be about 3km long finishing in Brecon Street where there will be a full on party atmosphere.

“There will be a lot of input into the development of the course from internationally renowned bikers and from local Queenstown experts and it certainly won’t be for the fainthearted,” says Hunt.

Qualifying rounds will be held on Friday April 22 and Saturday April 23. The final is scheduled for Easter Sunday April 24.

The final will be limited to the top 100 competitors and with good prize money on offer is expected to attract competitors from all over the country as well as local hotshots.

“Queenstown is recognised as a world class destination for mountain biking and its reputation will undoubtedly continue to grow just as Whistler in Canada has done,” says Hunt. “This new downhill event which will become an annual Easter fixture can only help reinforce Queenstown’s international mountain biking status.”

Skyline Queenstown’s Mountain Biking project Co-ordinator Brad Rowe says the company is excited to be linked with the Ben Lomond Downhill.

“It will be fantastic to see an event like this with top level riders racing through the Ben Lomond forest during Easter. Having already witnessed the likes of Justin Leov here in action this really is an exciting time to be a mountain biker in Queenstown.”

A head to head encounter in The North Face Peak to Peak on Saturday (July 24) saw the defending open champion team Outside Sports (Queenstown), ousted by a dynamic young side fielded by Queenstown’s Fergburger, who crossed the finish line at Coronet Peak in a record time of just over two hours.

Race Director Geoff Hunt says it was one of the most exciting races the event has seen in its 17 years. “We had a real race on our hands from the outset and it was a tribute to both teams who exhibited fantastic skills in every section.”

The 44km multisport race attracted 90 teams and 69 individual athletes. It began with a 2km ski or snowboard on The Remarkables finishing at the access road, followed by a 17km mountain bike ride down the high altitude road to Lake Wakatipu. A 7km paddle to Queenstown Bay led to a 9km run from Queenstown via Arthurs Point to a changeover point near the foot of Coronet Peak, for the final 9km cycle ride to finish at the base building at the top of the ski area.

“In the run Fergburger’s Grant Guise took on the guru Adrian Bailey then the cycle up Coronet Peak was an incredible battle between Scott Lyttle and Scott Rainsford with Lyttle making the charge to cross the line in first place,” says Hunt.

Fergburger won in 2.02.51 and Outside Sports was forced to take second place in 2.04.19. Outside Sports team manager Jim Hawkridge praised the Fergburger team for its outstanding performance.

“It was great to have a race like that and we don’t mind losing to such a class team. They are all good athletes and the competition was fantastic.”
Continue Reading

By Richard Ussher

This year’s Rollo’s race doubled as the NZ AR 24 hour champs as well and was base doubt of Collingwood in Golden Bay. It’s an area I haven’t explored too much and so along with the invite from Nathan Fa’avae to join him and Fleur Lattimore and the promise of a stunning course it persuaded Elina and I to delay our travel to the northern summer and join the start list.

There were definitely a few moments in the lead up to the race where it seemed we should have split to the warmer climates as planned as the cold weather made training that much more of a challenge.

With 35 teams on the start line across several divisions we headed off on the first bike section which quickly turned into a team TT as we tried to get a small jump on the other teams before the river and first kayak stage.

On making the river I then squandered our minute lead by forgetting my spray skirt (too much K1) and then the map (too much tri) so by the time we were finally underway we had the company of Andrew Martin’s team ITM. The first part of the river had some pretty shallow rapids and while bumping down one of the rapids our first ever properly brought and attached Kayak flag decided it preferred a home at the bottom of the river and ejected itself, fitting and all into the river leaving a hole in the top of our deck.
Nathan had a good laugh at this as his flag stayed firm despite what was thrown at it – it was slightly smaller than regulation at 5cm high though! But with no dimensions given prior to the race he was in the clear. Watch out for the waves he cautioned as we tried to keep the water away from the hole moments before being engulfed in a bunch of unavoidable standing waves inciting yet more laughter from Nath’s boat.

ITM was fair hammering the paddle and with the help of an ingenious tow system were putting the pressure on and once out of the river and into the sea we decided to leave them too it while we had a well deserved snack.
Continue Reading